280 
SOUTH SEA 
or the cause of it ; but it most probably arises from the 
naturally uninviting, disgusting appearance of this wolf 
of the waters, combined with a sudden reflection upon 
its well known blood-thirsty, cruel, and utterly merciless 
character. 
The sun was now very near the horizon, and of course 
the light o£ day was subsiding, when I reminded the 
third mate, who had the care of the boat, that it was 
time we should be thinking of taking our departure, and 
advised him to weigh our boat’s anchor. He accord- 
ingly gave orders for the line to be coiled up, and the 
anchor weighed, for we had caught enough fish to serve 
the whole ship’s crew for two or three meals ; but the 
anchor had unfortunately become fouled, or fixed in be- 
tween two large masses of detached rock, and it was a 
long time, and with a great deal of difficulty, before we 
succeeded in getting it clear. We did this at last, but 
not till it was nearly dusk; the men immediately sat 
to their oars, and did their best to get outside the land 
in time to get a sight of the ship before dark ; but what 
was our surprise and chagrin when we could not discover 
her in the direction we expected. The oars w r ere fixed 
apeak, and we all stood up in the boat anxiously looking 
for our only home. In a minute or two our New Zea- 
lander called out in an exulting tone, that he could see 
the ship: it could not escape his eagle eye. We all 
looked in the direction in which he pointed — we all 
became convinced it was the ship. We could make out 
her three masts like black streaks in the gloom, but she 
was in quite a different direction from that in which we 
